On December 25, 2019, the Supreme People's Court of P.R.China ("SPC")issued the Decision of the Supreme People's Court regarding Amendment of Several Provisions on Evidence in Civil Procedure.
The amended Provisions mainly include:
First, improvement of the system of order for production of documentary evidence and expansion of litigants approaches to collecting evidence.
The second is amendment and improvement of the admission rule to better balance the exercise of the parties' right of disposition and the real needs of the people's court.
The third is improvement of the recognizance system for parties and witnesses, the promise system for authenticators and the sanction measures for litigants' or witnesses' false statements, as well as the authenticators' false authentication to promote the implementation of the good faith principle in civil procedure.
The fourth is supplementation and improvement of the provisions on the scope of electronic data and clarification of the rules on examination and judgment of electronic data.
For cases that have not been concluded after the implementation of the Amendment Decision, the Amendment Decision should apply in principle; for cases that been concluded, the content of the Amendment Decision can not be used as a basis of application for retrial. Where the judicial interpretations issued by the Supreme People's Court before are inconsistent with the Provisions, they shall no longer apply.